This is your mussel on drugs

Scientists in California want to study black mussels pried rocks in San Francisco Bay to see if they can tell us how many drugs and chemicals pollute waters nationwide.

Why mussels? The creatures filter water and store contaminants in their tissue, providing a record of pollution in the environment. Why is this a problem? A story in today's Dispatch helps explain.

For this study, 180 mussels are being collected from 80 sites in California as part of a pilot study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to see how pervasive the substances have become.

Regulators are concerned about an array of chemicals and pharmaceuticals — everything from the chemical C8, which is used to make Teflon, to synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills — that can accumulate in the tissue of animals and people.

The chemicals are being detected more often in surface water, state water quality officials said, but little data exists about how these substances negatively effect the health of humans and animals.